Rise of the Alphas
by Chaotic Harlequin
Summary: It's amazing how your life can change in one night. How you can go from being an ordinary person...To something else.
1. Pilot

Yellowstone.

Simply Yellowstone.

It was beautiful. I couldn't believe that we were camping here! I stared into the night sky, just gazing at the stars. Couldn't see those in LA. I sighed happily, enjoying the warm feeling of being outside with my friends. Said friends were sitting around the campfire laughing and drinking away. Cat tripped and spilled the cup of instant noodles on Beck. I joined the others in laughing as Beck tried to get noodles and broth off of his face.

"Found the drinks?" Andre asked, chill as always.

"Yep. All here." I said, passing around the large bag. Everyone reached in and grabbed a bottle. I wasn't really big on the whole drinking thing, but what the heck? We're in Yellowstone! I was suddenly rudely shoved to the side. Before I could say or do anything about it, the resident mistress of pointless cruelty sat down right next to me. The pale eerie brunette.

Jade West.

Jade who would never voluntary sit next to me. She freaking hates me!

I glared/looked at her questionably because I doubted that there was anything that could make her voluntarily sit next to me. Jade glanced at me and without even taking the bottle of vodka away from her mouth, she shrugged. Obviously I wasn't going to get a straight answer out of her. I huffed in annoyance, and then cheered at Robbie's suggestion of a drinking game. Jade, Cat and I all immediately shot down his suggestion of spin the bottle. We all remembered how weird he got after Cat and Trina had staged kissed him. Who knows what he would do after drinking rum?

Beck, looking cool and relaxed against the log suggested truth or dare. That passed with everyone.

"Me first! Me first!" Cat yelled. She hiccuped and giggled lightly. "Uhmmm Tori!"

"Dare." I said. What? It's a drunken Cat dare. Not like getting a dare from Jade.

"Streak into the lake!"

My jaw hit the ground and Jade started choking as she tried to laugh and swallow vodka at the same time. I pounded her on the back partly to help her out but also to buy as much time as I could before handling Cat's dare.

I was blushing furiously. "Can I pass?" I asked. The answering No nearly deafened me. "She's scared." Jade said, wheezing and trying to smile. "I am not!" I snapped. "_I am not!" _Jade mocked. "I don't sound like that! How many times do I have to tell you?!"

"Don't know. But I do know that you're streaking and diving into the lake."

"Am not!"

"Are too."

"Am. Not."

"Are. Too."

"I. Am. Not."

"Yes, you are."

"No I'm not!"

"No, you're not!"

"Yes I am!"

"No you're not Vega!"

"Yes I am West and that's that!"

Jade was smiling and the others were roaring with laughter. What was so funny? Why was Jade smiling? I replayed the conversation in my head and realized what was so funny. I had dived head first into one of the most simplest idiotic things straight from loony toons. "You said you're going to do it. So hop to it." Jade said smugly. There are times when I want to smack that smirk right off of her face. This is one of them.

Jade opened her mouth, no doubt to insult me again when I cut her off. "No cameras!" I snapped, glaring pointedly at Robbie. Robbie nodded a bit sourly. I ducked behind a tent to get out of my clothes. I couldn't believe that I was going to do this. But what was the alternative? Listen to Jade's mocking again? I really hated how she could just push all of my buttons without even trying. I wish I could do the same to her!

I just got out of my bra when I heard a loud crack. I froze thinking that someone was about to peek when I heard Cat's voice. "No cameras Robbie!"

"That was a three hundred dollar-"

"She said no camera. That means no camera you damn perv." Jade's icy voice cut in. Robbie grumbled but Beck and Andre also joined in getting Robbie to shut up. Sinjin might have said something, but if he did then he was drowned out by everyone else. I took a deep breath and started running. I ran past the other camps as fast as I could before crashing into the water. Which was freezing by the way! Teeth chattering I climbed out of the water and ran back to our camp. I dried off and got dressed. Everyone cheered and I blushed.

"Didn't think you would do it." Andre said cheerfully. "Neither did I" I muttered. Jade kept right on smirking at me. I ignored her and payed attention to the game. "Robbie's turn." Beck said.

It took Robbie a second to think. Jade's elbow hit me in my ribs. "Five bucks says it'll be something about sex." she whispered. I thought about it. Even with that much drinking from earlier and now, maybe he could surprise me. "I'll take that bet." I whispered back.

"Jade! Truth-" Robbie began.

"Truth." When everyone looked at her in shock, she gave a very defensive "What?" Jade never chose truth. Ever. Even Cat who knew her the longest was shocked. Heck, Beck was stunned and he had freaking dated her!

"Uhm. Well have you ever-" We'd never find out what the question was, because something far away exploded. We all jumped and stared in shock. "What the fuck is that?" Jade said, pointing at what looked like stars rising from the ground, trailing smoke..

"Uhh I don't know, but it looks like it's coming this way!" Andre said, his voice starting to rise whenever trouble was happening. He was right tough. The stars were flying right at the campground. "Run!" Cat screamed. We all started running. Or tried too. Drinking for a while and then drinking some more did not make for great coordination.

We didn't get far. Somebody screamed to get down and I dove to the ground. I glanced up and the star thing slammed into ground. Through the awful screaming and roaring and agonizing heat, I saw Jade get cut to pieces. Shrapnel I think they call it, hit her in the back and she slammed into the ground, bleeding all over the place. Cat ran screaming in pain and fear. I saw Andre get thrown into the air before something hit me in the head and I blacked out.

I woke up in the morning with my head screaming. I groaned and rolled my head and then screamed in fright. Some emergency type worker was an inch or two away from face. "Got a live one here!" Someone helped me up and carried me over to an ambulance. "My friends! Where are my friends?!" I yelled. I screwed up my eyes shut and grabbed my head. It hurt. So much. I couldn't even begin to describe the pain. It hurt that much. It was beyond agony.

I rolled on the gurney holding my head. I felt anger, sadness, fear...heart break? _What the fuck is going on?!_

I tried to focus my thoughts but I couldn't. All these voices! Everyone talking at once and I can't ignore them! _Can't believe anyone survived how do I help these people what the hell happened did I leave the oven on shit I don't get paid enough for this When's the Charger's game? _

I held my head trying to get the sounds out of my head. _Everyone just shut the fuck up!_ I think I yelled it. Or screamed it. The mind-sounds stopped. My head stopped pounding. I sat up panting and opened my eyes. Panting heavily, I sat up and looked around. The campground was blackened with ash, the trees that were still standing were stripped bare. It looked like hell.

A man ran by, and I grabbed his arm and stopped him. "Where are my friends?" I demanded.

"I don't know. They probably went ahead to the hospital."

Probably? What? I needed to know for sure. "Take me to someone who would know! Now!" The man blinked for a second before nodding. "This way." As we walked, I started to hear things. It wasn't just regular people talking. There was more to it. I was hearing voices..inside my head! One big blast of whatever couldn't have screwed me up that badly? Could it?

While I tried to sort that out, the guy lead me to some people sitting behind a couple of those prop up tables. "Here, they'll help you." He stood off to the side and I walked up to the people who I guessed to be missing persons or something. All the while I was still feeling..well everything. All these emotions and the people always talking it was going to drive me insane! Then suddenly, I felt a wave of relief wash over me.

"Tori!" I turned at the voice and did a laugh/cry thing. Was there ever a moment that I thought that I would be happy to see Jade of all people? I hugged her and she even hugged me back! Our joyous reunion was ruined by the guy that brought me to the table shaking his head and asking where he was.

"Umm you brought me over here to find my friends?" I answered.

"What are you talking about?"

"Doesn't fucking matter. Lets go Tori, I know where the others are." Jade snapped. She grabbed my arm and yanked me forward. As happy as I was to see Jade, I really wanted to know how she wasn't dead. Screwing any form of subtly, I asked her flat out. "How are you still alive? I saw you get shredded!"

Jade didn't stop and didn't say a thing. For a time there I thought she just wasn't going to answer. "I don't know. I felt the metal or whatever hit me. I know I died." She chuckled morbidly. "I guess I didn't actually stay dead." She glanced back at me. "Why are you holding your head?"

"It hurts." I hissed.

"Try and keep it together. Beck's hurt pretty bad. They air lifted him out of here just before I went to find you."

"You didn't go with?"

"Not enough room. Andre and Cat went with him to the hospital. We're going to meet them there."

I struggled to keep up with Jade, fighting through the emotional waves hitting me. I couldn't even tell what I was supposed to be feeling. Jade for a wonder noticed that I wasn't doing all that well and slowed to a stop. "Do we need to find a doctor?" She asked.

"No. No there'll be doctors at the hospital."I focused as much as I could on getting the noise to stop. I don't know how long it took or what happened, but all I do know that the voices and emotions stopped. I gasped in relief and felt the pain ebb away. I stood up straight and laughed happily.

"The fuck is so funny?" Jade demanded, staring at me like I'm insane.

"I'll explain later. Come on, they're waiting for us!" I took the lead and dragged Jade with me. _Someone's gone batshit. _"I haven't gone batty!" I snapped in annoyance. After finally getting everyone around me to shut up, I wasn't in the mood to deal with Jade's attitude. "uh who are you talking to?" Jade asked in confusion.

"You of course! I'm not batty just happy."

"Happy people are batshit and I didn't say anything."

"Yes you did."

Jade didn't say anything, but I swear I could actually feel her confusion. I glanced back and her mouth was closed in her usual scowl but she wasn't saying anything. We reached the truck and everyone piled in. Jade got in the driver's seat and took off. I sat in the back next to Robbie who looked stunned and Sinjin wore the same look. This is supposed to be the part where I help them, but how the hell do I do that? I glanced at Jade and did a double take. Her leather jacket and the shirt underneath was riddled with holes. Some were small but others were huge and but the one thing they all had in common was the dark red stuff all around them.

"Jade, are you hurt?"

"No."

"Are you sure? Because-"

"Sinjin, take a look. Am I hurt?"

Sinjin jumped, but he looked her over and said "No cuts. Perfect skin as always." Jade shoved him back into passenger seat and said "See? I'm fine." She glanced in the rearview mirror and said "Check on Robbie." Robbie protested that he was fine, but it was half hearted at best. I don't know how long the drive was, but we finally reached the hospital. Jade cut off what seemed like a dozen people when she parked and had Robbie, Sinjin and I all holding onto dear life when she had cut the corners at insane speeds. (I don't know what's with that woman; sometimes it seems like she doesn't care if she lives or dies)

Jade grabbed a shirt from the back of the truck and we all followed her inside. "Which room is Beck Oliver in?" she snapped at the receptionist. The woman blinked before her eyes narrowed as she typed on the computer. The receptionist didn't seem to be in a rush to tell us, and even the most blind person could tell that Jade was getting madder by the second. "He's in room 402." I said before this could break out into a massive argument. Before anyone could ask me how I knew that because I really didn't know how myself. We reached the room and bulldozed our way in. Beck was sitting up right and looked beaten up, but he was alive and awake! We all rushed forward and hugged each other and laughed. Andre had his left arm in a cast and Cat had her ankle in a splint.

No one else was really hurt though and when the doctor came and said that we would have to go, I convinced him to let us all stay in the room with Beck. We stretched on the yoga mats talking the night way, all relieved that we all got away (relatively) unharmed.

One by one, everyone but me fell asleep. I was worried that if I stopped concentrating then I would hear all those people talking again. I didn't want that. I sighed and left the room. Maybe a soda and or coffee would help me thing. It took some work, but I found a soda machine. I turned around after grabbing my drink and had to swallow a scream because Jade was right there, glaring at me.

"What?!" I demanded.

Jade folded her arms across and stared me right in the eyes.

"How long have you been able to read people's minds?"

_Here it is. The first chapter. Not really sure how I feel about this chapter. Do be kind and let me know will you? _

_Also a bit of warning, this story is going to get dark. Stuck in the abyss of nightmares dark. Why? Because I care. _

_Love_

_-C.H._


	2. Blood

Tori and I sat next to each other, drinking soda. It was a sort of awkward silence. You know the silence where someone wants to say something, but they don't know what to say so they stay quiet? Except that in this case, it worked. A little. Kind of. Tori finally broke the silence.

"How did you know?" she asked quietly.

"I don't only watch horror movies. I like Marvel."

Tori looked at me in surprise. I decided to be nice for once and answer her unasked question. "I mainly talk about horrors because they're my favorite, and it creeps you out. Which is funny."

Tori huffed in annoyance and glared at me. I chuckled and then got serious. "The first clue was when I thought you had gone batshit from the blast. Even though I hadn't said anything, you thought I did. There were a few other hints, like you knew what Beck's room was from that nurse, and the way you twitch and glance at people; like you learned something weird about them."

"I've been doing that?!"

"Don't shout. I'm right here. And yes you have."

"So you just put that all together and came up with mind reading?" Tori asked in disbelief. "It is a bit of a leap, but hey. Last night something blew up near us, we came out mostly unscathed and I fucking _died._ Wasn't that heard to start thinking outside the box after that." I prodded her with my boot. "So? Since when have you been able to do the whole mind reading thing? I know it wasn't before Hollywood Arts."

Tori sighed. "Since this morning. Something hit me in the head. And it's not just people's thoughts. I think it's their emotions as well. I just know what everyone is really feeling."

Huh. Some kind of empathy reading thing? "What am I feeling then?" I asked. What? I'm curious. Not like shit like this happens everyday you know?

"Hate. Apathy. You've got other feelings, but they're so buried underneath those two i'd have to concentrate and find out."

"Which you wont do." I snapped. It's somewhat concerning that she managed to answer immediately without even thinking about it. "You're not reading my mind are you?" I asked furiously.

"God no. It took all day before I could get everyone to shut up. It's not like the movies at all. I can barely keep people's thoughts out of my head, and it's not organized at all. It's so confusing!"

"You're probably picking up the surface thoughts. You know, she's got nice legs and whatever."

"You seem to know a lot about this." Tori noted. "Read a book, genius." Tori immediately got annoyed again, and we almost immediately stopped talking. This time though, it wasn't an awkward silence. It felt...right, I guess. Tori eventually went back to the room to try and get some sleep. I didn't make any effort to move. Tori had either ignored me or missed it when I said that I had died. I hadn't been joking or exaggerating.

I still remember...still feel the shrapnel ripping into me. Falling. My blood pouring out of me in rivers. Slowly growing darker and darker. I shuddered and ripped myself from the memory. I don't know what was in that flare thing, but it did more then bring me back to life. I went to the bathroom and looked in the mirror. I took the small pair of scissors out of my back pocket. Sharpened for self-defense, I gripped it hard and stabbed my hand. I gasped in pain and lifted the scissors, wet with my blood. And right before my eyes, my hand healed! Completely. Not a mark, like it never happened. I locked the door to make sure no one barged in. Lucky for me this bathroom was one of those single ones.

With wonderfully morbid fascination, I cut myself and watched as I healed immediately each time. I still felt pain though. On one of the final cuts, some blood welled up quickly and in large amounts as I stared at it. My blood started to snake around my arm, as if it was following someones orders. It took me a second to figure out that the blood was following my orders! I was making this happen! Excited, I watched as it gathered in the palm of my hand. I imagined it as a whip and the blood stretched out and fell to ground like a large limp noodle.

I laughed and moved my hand. Like magic, the blood-whip snapped and hit the wall with a large crack. I laughed until I saw the gaping hole in the wall. It looked like a demon or something had stuck a claw into the wall and dragged forward.

Fuck. Me.

My blood quickly snaked back into my arm and I absentmindedly noticed the cut on my arm healing itself. I decided it was time to leave before someone showed up and started asking questions. Questions I really didn't want to answer. I unlocked the door and peeked out. Despite the noise, no one was in the hall. I quickly left the bathroom, and walked back to the room as nonchalantly as I could.

"You were gone awhile." Andre said when I entered the room. "Couldn't sleep." I replied. "I know the feeling. Cat and I got away because we ran." He rubbed the back of his head with his good hand. "We'll, she ran. I fell down the hill. How I fractured my arm. But a fractured arm is better then being dead you know?"

Oh I know. I didn't say that exactly. I just agreed with him and walked past Cat, who had somehow or the other had managed to bring the chairs together as a makeshift bed. It didn't look comfortable, but she was completely knocked out. I don't what happened. One second I was walking past her, the next I was on the ground holding my head. I groaned in pain and I heard Andre standing over me asking if I was okay. "I'm fine. How's my head look?"

Andre looked at my forehead and said "Looks just fine. Not a mark. What happened?"

"I tripped." I answered without paying him the slightest bit of attention. So the healing works on bruising too? That's great. I guess it works on everything then. Andre helped me up and then dropped my hand like it was poisoned. I took no notice of it. That was normal for everyone that got the courage to touch me.

I looked at Cat in amazement. What had she done? Her arm that had been on her thigh was now draped over the side chair. What the hell? I shook my head and grabbed the matt so I could try and get some sleep.

The next day dawned bright and fucking early because some dumbshit nurse had this sudden urge to check Beck's temperature at six fucking a.m. Good news was that the minor surgery was a success. Beck had gotten some lacerations on his side and chest. According to the doc, he was actually in more danger of bleeding to death then anything else. (well and shock, but he manged not to go into that)

Technically speaking we weren't supposed to leave, but all of us wanted to get out of here as soon as possible. Get the hell away from Yellowstone and back to LA, where things were loud, messy, and polluted, but nothing (usually) did not explode anywhere near us. For a wonder, the doc was actually understanding and let us go. He had Beck in a wheel chair, and explained that he would forward the info to Cedar Sinai for Andre, Beck and Cat. They thanked him and we left.

When we got to the truck, everyone was clamoring to know how everyone had escaped the blast. Beck had tried to copy Andre and roll down the hill, but he had been to slow. Cat actually had run the fastest, but the blast had caught her and she ended badly spraining her ankle. The doc or docs didn't want her to risk actually breaking it, so they put her in a cast splint thing for a few days. Sinjin and Robbie had somehow made it through almost completely unhurt save for a few scratches.

Tori was also fine, save for a small lump on the side of her head that went away with some ice. The drive back was silent after that talk. When I glanced back from the front seat, I could have sworn I saw Sinjin disappear for a second. When I looked again, he was sitting right there. I rolled my eyes. Just a trick of the light or something. After a freaking eternity, we made it back to wonderfully not exploding LA. I dropped everyone off and went home. It wasn't really home. It was just a house that I happened to live in. I didn't know why, but it hurt watching everyone get dropped off, and their families come screaming out to hug them and make sure that they're okay. Even Andre's lunatic grandmother came out to make sure he was all right. Of course she immediately started to harass him about the wind demon on the ceiling once she was sure. (The ceiling fan. In case you couldn't figure it out)

Why is this pissing me off? It never bothered me before. I walked in, wondering if dad was home. Surprisingly for a Sunday night, he wasn't. Probably was out shopping for a new trophy wife. I stopped and smiled. He wasn't home. This is perfect. I ran to the basement, or really my room. I started searching on the internet about blood and telekineses. It wasn't really that informative. I found my way over to watching anime most of the time. I guess using your blood for reasons other then magic isn't a common thing in the west.

It took some pain full cuts and experimenting, but I figured out how both of my powers worked. I healed instantly unless i was controlling my blood. If I was controlling my blood, the healing for that cut was blocked until I stopped controlling it. All I had to imagine what I wanted my blood to look like. I imagined it as claws and watched as it formed claws around my fingers. Whatever shape I pictured, my blood would form. I had to make it go back inside me though, otherwise when I released control of it, it would just drop to the ground. I laughed. This was awesome! A bit inconvenient though, I doubt I would always have time to-...realization hit me like a thousand pound bomb. Okay that was a stupid thing to say but the point stands!

I ran over to the dressing table and opened a small wooden box. Inside were two silver rings that Beck had given me during one our better moments. I put one on each index finger and pressed the bottom of the rings with my thumbs. A tiny blade popped out of each ring and I cut my thumbs. Blood snaked out at my command and I laughed. Here we go! I thought back to that anime clip I had seen. That blood-bullet thing. I got my answer my blood snapped into a sphere and then shot past my head with enough force to whip my hair around. I stared in shock at the new hole in the ceiling.

Right. Okay. Lesson learned. Just because I got the basics down doesn't mean that i'm an instant master. Holy shit. If I had tilted my hand just a couple inches to the right...I don't know if I could heal from a head shot. Don't want to find out.

I spent the rest of the night practicing. I ended up leaving groves in the walls and the ceilings. It didn't matter though. No one but me comes down here and it's not like I destroyed the foundations or anything. Just made it look like I had a badly trained pet dragon.

The next couple days were completely uneventful. Most of the gang stayed home, not wanting to deal with people asking about Yellowstone. This was one instance were my reputation came in handy because no one bothered me. When the noise mostly died down, I heard from them one by one that they would be in school. I glared at the morning sun and stepped onto the front porch. I had turned around to lock the door, and when I turned back around Cat was standing there completely invading my personal space.

"GEEZUS FUCK CAT!" I screeched, rocketing back. "Where the fuck did you come from?!"

Cat giggled. "I ran here silly!" Ran? How the hell could she have run here? We live miles away! "What time did you leave? Why aren't you tired or sweaty?"

"Oh that's because i'm awesome like that. Tori told me you could regenerate! That's so cool! Tori finally got a hang of that mind reading thing, oh and she can move things with her mind! It's so cool! She found out when she accidentally launched Trina off of the couch. It was actually pretty funny. She looked so surprised!"

Huh. So Tori's also a telekinetic too? Interesting. "Come on! It's time to go to HA!"

"Yea, yea. My car is over there."

Cat laughed loudly. "We can't take your car. It's so slow!" I stared at her. Okay, so it isn't the newest Nissan out there, but it still made good speed. I was about to ask her what the hell she was talking about when she put her arm around my waist and then grabbed the back of my head. "What the hell are you doing?" I demanded. "Protecting you from the whiplash."

"The what?"

"Whiiiiiippplaaaasssshh" Cat said slowly as if speaking to a mentally challenged child. I was about to reprimand her when we took off. I wont waste your time describing it. It was just one massive blur. I was in tears because it felt like the wind was trying to rip my eyes out. We slammed to a stop and I was nearly pitched forward into the ground. I manged to open teary eyes and saw that we were at Hollywood Arts. I was dizzier then anytime I had been hung over and the world seemed to pitch and turn and just refuse to stay still. Eventually I just gave up and doubled over and threw up.

"Oh I almost forgot! I have to go get Tori! Be right back!" I blinked and Cat was gone. A couple minutes later the world wasn't moving as much and I could sit down. I held my head and Cat and Tori appeared. Tori didn't bother with any pretense and just doubled over and threw up. "Think I should get the others?" Cat asked, oblivious to our suffering. "NO!" Tori and I shouted at the same time. "Anybody have mouth wash?" Tori asked. "I'll get it!" Cat said and she vanished.

"I thought her ankle was sprained or something." I groaned.

"It was. She said she got better."

"Too bad." I snapped, not feeling the least bit kind. "For once, we agree." Tori said, holding her head.

"I'm back!" Cat cheered, shoving a bottle of mouth wash in my face. I glared at her, but wasn't anywhere near as effective because I was still pretty much crying. I grabbed the mouth wash from her stupidly cheerful self and growled.

_That's it for this chapter. _

_Harlequin out!_

_-C.H._


	3. Fast

It was a slow day. I mean really slow. I don't remember if school was always this slow. I always loved Hollywood arts. But was it always this slow? I mean everyone took forever! They all liked to dawdle. Heh. Kind of a funny word don't you think? Dawdle dawdle dawdle. At lunchtime my I sprinted to downtown to get some Chinese food. It was so much fun! I the world went by in a crazy blur that made sense to me. I could still see all the individual people and the stores and everything else. I stopped right in front of this great place to eat and scared this old lady. She jumped and tried not to look around wondering where I came from. I pushed past her confused self and ordered my food. I wanted to get something extra for the others, but I didn't have enough money. Sad really. I paid for my food and walked out the door before running off again. (Jade and then Beck and then Andre had lectured me in the janitor's closet about not letting anyone see us use our powers.)

It took a few seconds to get back to school. I found the others sitting at a table eating and talking. I ran up to them and sat down with a cheerful "Hi guys!" Everybody jumped and their yells caused some people to look at us like we were crazy or something.

"Cat where the hell did you come from?" Beck demanded. "The café." I said, referring to our new favorite spot to grab something to eat. "You were right, she really does have super speed." Robbie said in awe. "Told you so." Jade said. Half way through my egg drop soup, I noticed that Jade wasn't as smug as she usually was. Still smug though. Wow I was hungry. "You going to eat that?" I asked, pointing at Sinjin's pizza. Sinjin looked at me in shock but nodded. I wolfed it down and felt so much better. Eat well as my brother likes to say in his more lucid moments.

Tori looked around to make sure no one was really listening, and then asked, "We know what Cat, Jade and I can do, did you guys get any powers?" Beck smirked and pointed his finger at the spoon Robbie was using to eat and pointed down. The spoon bent down just as Robbie was about to get the soup off of it. We all gasped. "You can control things with your mind?" Sinjin said.

Beck shook his head. "Only metal. That's it."

"What about the rest of you?" I asked. Andre shook his head. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I can't show here. Not planning on ending up as a lab rat."

All of us nodded at that. Beck frowned. "We need a place to practice, can't run the risk of our…specialties getting out of control or something."

Jade smirked. "I know the perfect place. No one will ever see us there."

"Oh yea? Where's that toots?" Rex the annoying puppet asked. Jade's fist slammed into Rex's head, and it audibly cracked as it snapped backwards. Robbie yelled Rex's name and Jade continued talking like nothing happened. "It's the old junkyard outside of the city. A couple hours of driving because of the traffic, and you're there. The only person there is Floyd who owns the place. Drunk off his goddamn ass most of the time so if he sees anything, just blame it on the alcohol."

"Isn't that were you get most of your props?" Robbie asked, having finally put Rex's head back on. "Yep. For a couple dollars you get into the junkyard. You don't always have to pay though, just tell him you did. He's so fucking drunk it's amazing he hasn't gotten himself killed yet." Jade chuckled and the rest of us did a kind forced laugh.

If it took everyone else a couple hours to get to this junkyard, then it should only take me at most a minute. This super speed thing is making everything so easy! I wish I had before. Though it does get annoying having to eat a lot more. And I mean a lot. Like four or six meals a day. But hey, running everywhere in a so fast? This morning before I got Jade and Tori, I went all the way to Seattle! It was so cool! The coffee was good.

I was brought back to earth by Andre snapping his fingers in my face. "Hey Kit-Cat! You there?"

"Yesss. I am."

"You've been doing that all day. You're spacier then usual today." Jade said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I demanded. Jade face-palmed and sighed. She opened her mouth and Tori and Andre cut her off. "She just means that" Tori started, "That you haven't been paying much attention today." Andre finished. I looked at Jade and she rolled her eyes and said, "What they said."

I smiled happily. So Jade wasn't being mean as usual. Good! "It's nothing. Today or everyone just feels so slooow. I mean really sloooow." I stretched out slow as much as I could. "Don't you guys feel that way?"

Everyone looked at each other before they said anything. "We are at school. Things slow down here." Andre said kindly. "Yea, it's the norm around here." Sinjin chirped. I frowned. They weren't getting it. Well I wasn't going to explain because they weren't listening.

The bell rang we all separated to go our classes. We all met at Sikowitz's classroom at the end of the day. Jade had convinced (or bullied) Beck and Andre to give everyone rides to the junkyard. Jade told me where to go and I ran ahead. After having to sit down all day, there wasn't anyway that I was going to sit in a car. At all.

The world turned into those wonderful blurs as I raced all around the city. It was so cool to see so many things! So many people doing this and that. I did see one guy trying to beat up this other guy. I ran by him faster then he could see and poked him on the cheek. When I stopped and looked back, the bully flew sideways and hit the dumpster. He fell to the ground with a groan. The guy who was being beaten up looked up in shock, but I was all ready gone. I checked my phone and saw that the others would be there soon. I ran off to the junkyard. Though they did beat me there because I got lost. It's not my fault Jade can't give good directions!

I saw Floyd as I ran in. Short and thin with greasy hair and beard and lets just say he's a greasy person and leave it at that. He had a bottle of beer in his hand and looked half asleep. I ran around until I found the others. It was pretty easy; all I had to do was find the laughing and the occasional yell.

I ran over and joined sat next to Jade. "You got lost didn't you." Jade said as a fact, not a question. "Noooo, I just wanted to wander around for a bit."

"Sure you did."

I grumped but Jade ignored me. I watched as Beck concentrated and started to lift the beat up old bug. Tor lifted a car and cheered. She threw her hands in the air and cheered and the car rocketed up! It was funny, but Tor's face was even funnier! She looked so scared! When the car started to come back down, Tor and Beck started to get ready to catch it. Robbie stepped up and threw this little reddish-green ball the size of a small rubber ball. The ball hit the air and circle opened up and the car fell into it. Robbie threw another ball and another circle opened and the car flew out of it! We all ignored the crash(ed) car and stared at Robbie. "Found out I could do that yesterday." He said sheepishly.

"Hey, where's Sinjin?" Beck asked. "I'm over here!" we all turned to follow his voice and only saw clothes walking around. "What the fuck?" Jade asked. It clicked for Tori first. "You can turn invisible!"

Sinjin turned visible again. "That's not all I can do. Watch this!" A purple-red bubble suddenly appeared. Sinjin looked strained holding it, but it managed to form. We cheered and Sinjin moved the bubble until it hit the tower of broken cars and popped. "That leaves just you man. What can you do?" Beck asked Andre.

Andre smiled and stood up. One second he looked like his normal nice self, the next he was all metal! Shiny shiny metal! Jade walked up to him and punched him on the arm. She screwed up her face and swore loudly. "He's metal all right. Goddamn!" We laughed and cheered. We had powers! Super powers! Even Jade started to smile. Like an actual smile, not that smirk thing she does all the time.

We started to practice as much as possible. Every weekend that we had off, we would come here to the junkyard and practice. Soon we were doing amazing stuff! Like straight out of the movies stuff! I figured out how fast I wanted to move, and Jade and Tori helped me learn how to sit still long enough to get through school. Don't you dare laugh, it's harder then it sounds!

Beck could pick up small cars easily, and we learned that Andre could become whatever material he touched. Best of all for him, he says he remembered it so he only had to touch the whatever once!

It was great. Jade did say something about making sure that these powers didn't come with cancer or something. She turned down my help though, said something about me being a hassle. I don't why she said something so freaking rude about me. I'm not a hassle. Whatever that is.

After a few weeks that went by really fast, we had almost mastered our powers and using them for everyday life. Well most of us. Robbie had figured out how to go different places, so he became our transporter person thing. I offered to take people around LA, but they all said no. Especially Tor and Jade. I think the best part was the fact that I could get away from home so much faster now. It was great!

I was in my room watching the Little Mermaid when the screaming started. Again. My brother is…..special. And not the cool kind of special like me, the scary special. He's not really all there and gets mad so easily. I wonder what set him off this time. It wasn't me because I hadn't seen him all day. Or maybe it was my parents that had started it this time.

I grabbed my pillows and tried to block out the sounds of my brother and parents screaming at each other. I gave up when I heard crashing and smashing. Time to leave before I get caught up in it. I know it sounds bad, but things are getting better. I mean fights like this only happen once a week instead of everyday like they used to! Maybe one day I could stay home and not hear screaming. It's a nice thought.

Time to go visit my oldest friend. I sent a quick text to my parents before I ran out the house. Running felt so great. Knowing that I was going somewhere, seeing everything faster then anyone could even hope to do. I stopped at a coffee shop to grab a drink and texted Jade to tell her that I was coming over. I was all ready at her door when she said "fine."

I rang the doorbell and waited for her to answer the door. After taking forever, Jade opened the door and this time didn't look surprised to see me. I guess she finally got used to me showing up in a few seconds. "Why did you want to come over?" She asked as she walked down to her room.

"I felt like it." I answered. Which is true. I felt like going over and visiting my friend. Of course I felt like doing it when my family was having another screaming matchy thing, but Jade doesn't need to know that. Jade shrugged and didn't ask any more questions. That was nice about Jade. For all of her problems she isn't nosy. Well unless she wants to hurt you or blackmail you. Then she's as nosy as…as something that's very nosy.

"What's with the wall fixing stuff?" I asked curiously. Jade smirked. "I made a bit of a mess. Had to fix and then repaint the walls."

Huh. What did she do this time?

I saw a stack a papers in a corner, like it was stuffed there quickly. Jade followed my eyes and saw what I was looking at. "Cat" Jade started to say, but I all ready ran and grabbed the papers. It was a bunch of basic info sheets. "Who's Ruby Schera?" I asked.

"It's Schere." Jade corrected. "And that's my new identity. For when I have to leave."

_Jade actually gives good directions. Cat just doesn't listen. At all. _

_-C.H._


	4. Nightmare

_I glared at the soldier and fried his brain. I might have done worse, but I didn't have the time and couldn't take the risk. Atlas Alpha-hunters were merciless. They wouldn't hesitate to shoot me and anyone I cared about. Thanks to that idiot assassinating/murdering the president, it was open season all Alphas. We had tried to stop him, and we had failed. _

_But even if we had failed, we would not throw our lives away because of one man. As the love of my life had said "We will not fade away gently. We will fight and take everyone to hell with us." I had disagreed with her right up until the newly created Atlas organization had killed my family. They got scared of what I could do. _

_They opened fire on the house from the distance._

_I wasn't home. _

_My Father. Mother. Sister. All home. All killed because of me. All. My. Fault. _

_The media didn't say a goddamn thing. They were related to a freak. Took care of a freak. Even if they didn't know what I could do, they deserved it._

_Fine. If they wanted me to be some monster; then I would be that monster. _

_No mercy. For anyone. _

_I turned towards the other soldiers who were shooting at us. I held up my hand and watched in amusement as the soldiers looked terrified at the sight of all of their bullets stopping in midair. I flicked my finger and they turned around and slammed into the soldiers. They fell screaming. More screams came from behind me as Beck used his magnetism to toss the trucks and the soldiers in them around like little toys. Andre tore threw more of the soldiers, tossing them aside like leaves before a storm as the bullets bounced off his metal form. _

_I laughed with Jade as her blood blades formed on her arms and carved a blood soaked path forward. "This way out of here!" Cat appeared and cheered as she ran ahead. I looked around downtown LA. It looked like hell. We weren't the only Alphas in this city. We've been fighting for six months and lots us of had died. But like she said, we weren't going gently. _

_Beck tore down the Vincent Thomas Bridge. We laughed at the destruction. _

_Congratulations humanity. You got your monsters. Just like you wished. _

I snapped forward, my chest pounding. I sweating and I was crying. What the hell kind of dream was that?! My alarm went off and I nearly jumped out of bed. I telekinetically turned it off and climbed out of bed. I reached outward with my mind, feeling the exasperation of my mom, wondering why it took Trina so long to get ready. The way my dad got himself ready for another day as a cop. He never told us how dangerous it could be. Always glossing it over or just straight up not talking about it. I would have given anything to continue to be ignorant about how dangerous his job could be. He may be a detective, but things happen to them too. I felt Trina's selfishness and her annoyance that I had gotten the better shampoo and conditioner then her. Well that's what you get for sleeping in on an early morning sale special! I got out of bed and felt better. Things weren't levitating any more. The first few nights back from Yellowstone, I was levitating all the furniture in my room every time I went to sleep.

I grabbed a towel and went to the bathroom, just in time for Trina to finally leave. She got up a full hour before me and still managed to make us late! I think today might be different. We might actually get to school on time! And then right after, Jade will wear a bright pink tutu and sing about how much she loves me. "Hey, are you all right?" Trina asked. I guess I must have looked like crud for her to actually notice. I felt her concern wafting off of her. I know we don't always get along and I sound like I don't like her, but we really do love each other. Just don't expect us to admit it.

"I'm fine. Just a bad dream. More like a nightmare really."

"You haven't had one those since elementary school."

"I know. Maybe it was from your bad cooking." I cheeked. Trina puffed her cheeks out like an angry blowfish and she prepared to yell. I pushed past her before she could start ranting and slammed the door. I still couldn't believe what I dreamt. All those people…my family….Watching Beck tear down the Vincent Thomas bridge..Could he really be that powerful? I turned on the shower to scalding, in the hope that the water would wash away the horrors that I saw. The horrible things that I did.

I took a faster shower then usual and got dressed and went downstairs. I was half way through my fourth bowl of cereal when dad spoke up "You feeling okay there?" He asked gently. "Um, yea? Why?" "You've been eating twice as much as usual. You ate a month's worth of food in a couple weeks."

I blinked in surprise. I hadn't even noticed. "Guess I'm growing again." I said happily. "Oh god I hope not. We're not buying you a whole new wardrobe!" Mom said. I stuck my tongue out at her and we all laughed. They're all alive. It was just a dream. A screwed up nightmare. Nothing else. I looked at the clock, and sure enough we were in danger of being late. Again. "Trina! Get down here!"

I wondered if I should give her a nudge. The first time I started figuring out what I could really do, I had thrown Trina off of the couch when she had started really getting on my nerves. What I can do is read people's thoughts and feel their emotions. I can also do the whole mind control thing and also change their emotions too. Basically the mind package as Andre called it. Every once an awhile, I will unintentionally "nudge" someone when I want something. I try not to do it on purpose, though when I do it's always small things like "stop talking, or hurry up so we can get to school on time." I'm not going to ruin their life or make them do something horrible. I couldn't tell if that me a horrible person or not. I mean, it's not like I'm making them play in traffic of anything. While I had been having a debate with myself, dad had called Trina and had forced her to come down. I grabbed my backpack and ran out the door with Trina following me.

"I think we might actually be on time today." I said. Trina said something about that it didn't matter if we were on time or not. (I wasn't really listening.) I pulled into the school parking lot and rushed off to my first class. As it turns out, I was lucky that I got to HA on time. Nothing like a test first thing in the morning. History class was made much better by the fact that Andre was there.

"Something wrong chica?" Andre asked.

"No, well yes. I had this weird nightmare. We all did these horrible things. I guess certain..things went to our heads."

Andre nodded. "I get what you mean. I've thought about it, you know? I go metal, who could stop me?"

"Beck could. I could. Robbie might, so could Sinjin." I answered immediately. Andre glared at me and smiled back. He mock-glared back and then laughed. "Okay, what regular person could stop me?" I thought about it. The only things that actually slowed Andre down and or damaged him were tanks and the like. "A tank?" I suggested.

"That's not a person."

"Still counts."

"How?"

"It's a person, or a bunch of people."

Andre kind of conceded the point, though I think he was happy that the only thing I could think of him to slow him down was tanks. Our conversation was interrupted by the teacher handing out the test. I was so glad that I finally figured out how to turn the mind reading on and off. It was hell, everyone's thoughts invading my head; not being able to tell which thought was mine. If it had gone on any longer, I probably would have gone insane. I couldn't turn off the empathy thing though. But I could ignore it as much as possible.

The day went by like it usually did, which is to say very very boring. But that's high school for you. It took all day, but it was finally time for the best class of the day. Sikowitz's class! He's really the only teacher all of us like here. He's not on the same wavelength as well…everyone (except Cat) but he's a great teacher. And it's the only class that all of us are in too! I sat down next to Beck and Jade and didn't have to be an empath to feel the sheer awkwardness between the two. Though I guess that's what happens when people who date for three years break up, get back together and then break up again. I couldn't let them sit in their awkwardness, it would just be mean. I moved a chair and sat between them, and Beck shot me a grateful smile, which I'm not sorry to say, had me blushing like a little schoolgirl. It is not fair that he could be that handsome. I felt the gratitude from Jade, though of course she wouldn't say it. I thought of a new trick that I saw on a movie and had to try it out. I concentrated on Jade.

_Jade?_

Jade flinched and looked around in confusion. _Jade, it's me. The only mind reader you know. I'm talking to you. In your head! And don't start. Now we can talk without anyone hearing your secrets. _

_I don't have any secrets. _

_Everyone has secrets. You're probably the most secretest of us all._

_Secretest? _

_You know what I mean. _

I'm proud to announce that I barely flinched when Cat just appeared in her seat right behind me. Though I had a slight warning with everyone's papers suddenly flew around the room.

"What did I tell you about doing that?" Jade demanded. "Jade, relax. Everyone's blaming something Sikowitz set up." Beck said. Jade grumbled but didn't say anything else. I felt a little bad for her. Jade always was angry, but now she seemed always angry. Like life held no happiness at all. Perhaps looking for a way to change the subject, Jade said "Hey Vega. Twenty bucks says Sikowitz comes through the window."

I thought about it. "No I think he'll surprise us and come through the door." Jade smirked and took the bet. We both were wrong. Sikowitz came through the roof. That spawned a quick debate over who won, but Beck compromised by pointing out that neither of us won. (Which was really a good thing because I didn't have twenty dollars and I don't want to know how Jade would take it out of me.)

Sikowitz's class was loud and fun as usual. We practiced improvisation and unfortunately got homework. We were paired up and told to get ready for an improve scene at the end of the week. And as usual, I was paired with Jade. She had no reaction except to say, "We'll work at my place." A chance to see the mysterious Jade's house? How could I pass it up? As we got up to leave, I noticed Cat practically glued herself to Jade's side. She stayed glued to Jade while we hung out outside of the school instead of going anywhere.

We all sat underneath a tree just talking away. None of us were in any rush to actually do anything. Beck was in the middle of telling this story when Robbie and Sinjin finally came back with the pizza. For a guy that can open up portals to just about anywhere, they sure took forever.

We started eating when this blond girl appeared out our table. It's really thanks to Sinjin, Robbie and Cat suddenly appearing so often that we didn't even react to her. Beck just asked who she was. Surprisingly though, Jade was the one who answered.

"The hell do you want Vanessa?"

Vanessa rolled her eyes and laughed. "I want what you want Jade. World peace and happiness, a government that actually works, my parents to actually pay attention to me, you tongue deep in me" (We all did a spit take on that one.)

"None of those are going to happen. Especially the last one."

Vanessa pouted. She wore a plaid skirt with knee high socks and a colored tank top with large boots. A very perky hippy goth set up. Actually looked good. "What do you want? You're not here for fun." Jade snapped.

Vanessa was still smiling, but the smile stopped reaching her eyes. It was like she was dropping an act. I couldn't feel anything from her. Honestly, she kind of scared me. She flicked her wrist and a card popped out. She dropped it on the table and said, "Come to Club Red Alpha. Show the bouncer this card and he'll take you to the right place. The place for important people who can do all sorts of neat tricks." She said with a wink.

"And if we don't go?" Beck asked.

Still smiling, Vanessa turned to Beck. "Oh you'll want to go handsome. It's in your best interests. And it's the only way you'll get the answers you need to know. I promise that none of you will be hurt. If you go to the club. If you don't…well…" She shrugged and turned and skipped away. Probably still smiling.

"Soooo." Robbie started to say. "Jade?" Beck asked. Jade sighed. "We can trust her to give us any info we need. If she says we wont be hurt, then we wont. She's big on keeping promises."

"Are you two uh..involved or something?" Andre asked. Jade shot him a glare. "No. She only has eyes for her boyfriend. Nessa just likes to piss people off." Vanessa spawned a debate between us, but we decided to go to the club. The chance for information was to good to pass up. We all split off to head home. Cat told me something about a ruby, but she wasn't making any sense. I had planned on going home myself, but Jade ordered me to go to her place today. So here I was! In Jade's car driving to her place. I was a bit worried about letting Trina drive home, but I gave her a small mental nudge to drive safely. Oh don't give me that look; you'd do the same if you knew someone that was lethal as the grim reaper when behind the wheel of a car! Jade pulled up to this large house. Did I say house? I mean mansion. Wow. I knew her dad was rich but this is just…wow. Jade pushed a button and the huge gates swung open. Considering how large and imposing the gates were, I expected them to scream or something. When I mentioned that, Jade smirked and said that she had installed a speaker system to do that, but it got taken down after it made her stepbrother piss himself.

Jade parked her car and when we got to the door, she spent a couple minutes turning off the security system and unlocking the door. "What's with all of the locks?" I asked. "Had these all put in after Sinjin broke into my house."

Oh right, he did do that didn't he? I guess all the locks are justified then. When we finally got into the house or mansion really, I remembered what Cat had said. "Why did Cat say something about rubies?"

Jade stilled. "I don't know." She said a second later. I frowned. "Jade. I know you're lying. I can make you tell the truth."

Jade turned in surprise. "You would actually do that?"

I frowned. "Well..no." Drat her for calling my bluff so quickly. "Jade please. Talk to me." I reached out and touched her arm, and she didn't recoil or do anything. I felt the confusion, the apathy, the distrust and something else buried beneath all of them that I couldn't make out. Whatever it was, it was really buried beneath the apathy, distrust and oh my god the hate. I don't think anyone could have that much hate in them. Whatever it was, it was so well buried that I don't think Jade even knew it was there.

"Ruby Schere. It's a new identity I set up for when the shit hits the fan. I can be ready to leave and have a new life set up at any time."

I was floored. "Why would you set up something like that?!" I yelled. Jade looked at me like I was a moron. "You've heard of Murphy's law right? We have super powers! You really think everything is going to stay the same? Things are going to go wrong. I'm just getting ready for when they do."

"So you'll just leave?" I demanded.

"I'm not leaving idiot! I said the same to Cat and she's not fucking getting it! This is a just in case."

We glared at each other. "How could you even plan to just leave? What about your friends?"

Jade scoffed. "I'm pretty sure all of you would throw parties if I left." "I wouldn't." I said, hurt. "I would, no want you to stay. No matter what." "Which only goes to show that you're a moron. Or a masochist." Jade snapped.

We glared at each other. I couldn't believe her! Here she was being selfish and stupid as usual. I can't believe I want to be friends with her! Actually try and get to know the real Jade. God I'm so stupid. And she's stupid too! Thinking that this is all going to go horribly wrong. Then I thought back to my nightmare.

What if Jade wasn't wrong to prepare for the worst? Could the worst really happen?

_That's it for now. I really should go to bed. It's three am. _

_-C.H._


End file.
